Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961; IPA pronunciation: [bəˈɹɑk oʊˈbɑː.mə]) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, he is the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and the only African American currently serving in the U.S. Senate.[1] He is a candidate for the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination.
He was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996. Four years later, he made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Obama won reelection to the state senate in 2002, running unopposed. As early as 2002, he was a critic of the proposed Iraq War, declaring in a television interview that he would have voted against the Iraq Resolution.[3] In 2004 he ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate. Midway through the campaign, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and became a nationally known political figure. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with a landslide 70% of the vote.
Obama formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. Recent opinion polls rank him as the second most popular choice among Democratic voters for their party's nomination, after Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). (wiki)
He was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996. Four years later, he made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Obama won reelection to the state senate in 2002, running unopposed. As early as 2002, he was a critic of the proposed Iraq War, declaring in a television interview that he would have voted against the Iraq Resolution.[3] In 2004 he ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate. Midway through the campaign, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and became a nationally known political figure. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with a landslide 70% of the vote.
Obama formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. Recent opinion polls rank him as the second most popular choice among Democratic voters for their party's nomination, after Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). (wiki)
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (born in Alego, a village in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). His parents met while both were attending the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student.
When Obama was two years old, his parents separated and later divorced; his father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, eventually returning to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student, with whom she had one daughter. The family moved to Jakarta, where Obama attended local schools from ages 6 to 10.[8] He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, attending Punahou School from 5th through 12th grade and graduating from there in 1979. His father died in a car accident in Kenya when Obama was 21 years old. Obama's mother died of cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.
In Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's white, middle class family. His knowledge about his absent black Kenyan father came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama wrote: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind." As a young adult, he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. Obama writes about using marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."
After high school, Obama studied for two years at Occidental College and then transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. After receiving his B.A. degree in 1983, Obama worked for one year at Business International Corporation. In 1985, he moved to Chicago to direct a non-profit project assisting local churches to organize job training programs for residents of poor neighborhoods.
Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he gained national recognition for becoming the first African American to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review. He obtained his J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter registration drive, then worked for the civil rights law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. (wiki)
When Obama was two years old, his parents separated and later divorced; his father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, eventually returning to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student, with whom she had one daughter. The family moved to Jakarta, where Obama attended local schools from ages 6 to 10.[8] He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, attending Punahou School from 5th through 12th grade and graduating from there in 1979. His father died in a car accident in Kenya when Obama was 21 years old. Obama's mother died of cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.
In Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's white, middle class family. His knowledge about his absent black Kenyan father came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama wrote: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind." As a young adult, he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. Obama writes about using marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."
After high school, Obama studied for two years at Occidental College and then transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. After receiving his B.A. degree in 1983, Obama worked for one year at Business International Corporation. In 1985, he moved to Chicago to direct a non-profit project assisting local churches to organize job training programs for residents of poor neighborhoods.
Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he gained national recognition for becoming the first African American to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review. He obtained his J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter registration drive, then worked for the civil rights law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. (wiki)
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